


A Strange Interruption In Your Everyday Life

by dream_vs_nightmare



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gremma, Prompt Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-12-27
Updated: 2016-12-27
Packaged: 2018-09-12 14:07:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 873
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9075190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dream_vs_nightmare/pseuds/dream_vs_nightmare
Summary: “I baked you some Christmas cookies.” He says around a smile, standing just a few steps outside her door like it’s the most natural of places for him to be. He looks as comfortable as can be, stood there with a plate of cookies in hand. It’s...strange, but she almost doesn’t mind.“Seriously?” She’s halfway to smiling at him even as her chest tightens with some strange, raw emotion she can’t place.An Emma/Graham Christmas AU.





	

**Author's Note:**

  * For [toskyewardandbeyond](https://archiveofourown.org/users/toskyewardandbeyond/gifts).



> For the Gremma Secret Santa event on tumblr, written for @toskyewardandbeyond. I only had a vague idea of what you liked/wanted, but I do hope you enjoy what's here nevertheless!
> 
> Or, the one where Emma and Henry are having a blast defending the galaxy from a group of ruthless aliens, until Graham walks into their lives with a warm smile and a plate of God-awful cookies.
> 
> Prompt: You baked me Christmas cookies and they taste like shit but you look really happy and excited so I’m just gonna suffer through them.
> 
> Props to anyone who can find the Stranger Things reference!

                                               

* * *

 They’re in the middle of fighting a massive alien spaceship when the doorbell rings. Emma groans at the interruption and Henry laughs, PS3 controller in hand, and says he’ll pause it.  
  
“It’s probably nothing.” Emma says as her eyes drift from the TV to Henry.  
  
“Y’never know.” He says with a nudge to her shoulder. “You should go get it.”  
   
She rolls her eyes and blows out a dramatic sigh as she pushes herself off the couch. “Alright, alright. But we’re taking out those bastards as soon as I get back.”  
  
He snorts in agreement and waves her towards the door.  
  
So she walks over that way, not really sure who to expect at this time of night. The Girl Scouts had already come ‘round already with their annual holiday cookie sale earlier in the week, and Jeannie and Meg from downstairs had already stopped by to wish them a happy holiday. She figures it’s the weird guy from upstairs with the yippy little dog coming to complain about the noise or something. He’d done it the week before, and the week before that, even after they’d turned it down.

Like really?

 _Someone_ has to defend the galaxy from the demogorgons, is just on the tip of her tongue as she opens up the door and looks at the guy.

The skin beneath her bracelet warms as she looks up into his face. He’s got a head of dark, tousled curls and the bluest eyes she’s ever seen, dark with flecks of gray - like the sea before a storm. _Oh._ He’s definitely not the weird guy from upstairs, and she can’t seem to get the words out about alien invasions once he meets her eye.  
  
“I baked you some Christmas cookies.” He says around a smile, standing just a few steps outside her door like it’s the most natural of places for him to be. He looks as comfortable as can be, stood there with a plate of cookies in hand. It’s...strange, but she almost doesn’t mind.  
  
“Seriously?” She’s halfway to smiling at him even as her chest tightens with some strange, raw emotion she can’t place. **  
**  
“Yeah, I uhm-” His smile broadens into a bit of an embarrassed grin as he scratches at the back of his neck. “I’m not much of a baker, you know, but I thought I’d welcome you to the neighborhood.”  
  
She arches an eyebrow at that and he says, “I do live here, y’know. I’m just down the hall, actually. 7C.”  
  
She hadn’t known anyone lived there, and her heart leaps into her throat when he smiles at her again. It hits her in that strange, raw place again - and she doesn’t understand why because _they’ve never met before._  
  
“You can ask Ruby if you don’t believe me.” Ruby had lived there longer than her and Henry, which was weird because it felt like they’d lived here forever. But they’d become close over the last few months, she and Ruby, and she trusts her.  
  
“No, I do.” She says and he gives her a sideways tilt of his head, and it’s strange because it’s not a lie. Not in the least. “Believe you, I mean.”  
  
“It’s gluten-free, if that’s why you’re a little hesitant.” He says with a boyish duck of his head that melts away the last of her resolve. **  
**  
So she takes the offered plate of treats and pops a cookie into her mouth. It’s cut in the shape of a snowflake and all frosted and warm and by all means should taste delicious, but it just-  
  
It tastes awful.  
  
But the stranger from 7C’s looking at her with all this hope in his eyes and it’s not like she can fuckin’ tell him. She’s not _that_ much of a Grinch, even after all the years of bleak Christmas’ past. So she suffers through the cookie from hell (it really does taste awful - like the frosting’s stale and the dough had just started to burn) and thanks him for all his trouble.  
  
“It was no trouble at all, 7B.”  
  
“It’s Emma, actually.” She corrects, and he gives her a wave as he turns back down the hall.  
**  
**“Then it was my pleasure, Emma.” The way his accent curls around the words sends a warm chill down her back. She never knew her name could sound that lovely.  
  
He’s halfway down the hall before she calls out to him, “Hey, wait!”  
  
He turns ‘round with that smile on his face from before all this, from before... _before what?_ She doesn’t know. She can’t remember.  
  
That strange, raw feeling in her chest again, she smiles at him and says, “Merry Christmas, 7C.”  
  
“It’s Graham, actually.” Now he’s the one correcting her, lilt as gentle as the New York City rain washing away the snow outside. His eyes are soft, kind, when he says, “But Merry Christmas to you too, Emma.”  
  
And then he’s gone, and that raw wall of feeling slams into her hard the moment she’s back inside her and Henry’s apartment.  
  
“Who was that?” Henry asks from the couch, a strange look on his face. She meets him there and shakes her head, saying, “I don’t know.”  
  
She doesn’t yet. But she did, once.

**Author's Note:**

> Because the world still needs more AU Season 3B Gremma.


End file.
